PLUS - festulolium by DLF gives you fast germination, high feeding quality, great persistency and high yields.
The science that created festuloliums increases your meat and milk production through higher forage performance. In festulolium science unites the best genetics of ryegrass and fescue species in a new generation of PLUS grasses. This genetic upgrade gives you more efficient and robust grassland production, lower costs and improved environmental sustainability.
PLUS-grasses is a highly successful cross between a fescue and a ryegrass. These type of grasses are also known under the umbrella; festulolium. It works because the hybrid performs better than its individual components.
Ryegrass PLUS resembles italian ryegrass but with much better persistency. Seeding vigour is in top and with very early spring growth and a high yield during season - It produces a higher yield and has better stress tolerance and persistency. It is suited for grazing and cutting and can substitute italian ryegrass, hybrid ryegrass and perennial ryegrass in a mixture and increase the performance of the mixtures.
Tall fescue PLUS
Tall fescue PLUS resembles tall fescue but with much higher digestibility. They combine attributes of tall fescue with the high feeding quality and rapid establishment of ryegrass. It is mainly characterized by high seeding vigour, early spring growth, high yield and very high digestibility. It is ideally suited to dry or stressed environments where yield and persistency are the primary drivers. It can be used as a direct replacement for tall fescue in medium- and long-term mixtures where it improves the feeding value.
Questions and Answers about PLUS grasses
What is a festulolium?
Festuloliums are forage grasses bred by crossing fescues with ryegrasses. The various combinations give us a wide portfolio of grasses with unique qualities.
What are the benefits of festulolium?
Festuloliums offer numerous benefits displayed across our portfolio of italian ryegrass or perennial ryegrass. Some have the high forage quality of Italian ryegrass; others exhibit the persistence, excellent stress-tolerance or high diseaseresistance of tall fescue or meadow fescue.
What are PLUS grasses from DLF?
PLUS grasses are highly successful crosses between fescues and ryegrasses. These grasses are also well-known under the festulolium umbrella. PLUS grasses are successful because they perform substantially better than their parent material.
Which types of PLUS grasses are there?
There are two types of PLUS grasses. The Ryegrass PLUS type has similar properties to Italian ryegrass, as well as perennial and hybrid ryegrass. The Tall fescue PLUS type has similar properties to tall fescue as well as meadow fescue.
Do PLUS grasses have a better yield?
PLUS grasses produce a much higher yield than perennial ryegrass or fescues. They also start producing earlier in the season. The dry matter yield increase compared to perennial ryegrass and tall fescue is as high as 25% for the two trial years combined.
What is the growth pattern for PLUS grasses?
Ryegrass PLUS has a very early and high spring production. The overall growth pattern is similar to ryegrass. Tall fescue PLUS has a slower spring start, and produces more
during summer and autumn. Its growth pattern is similar to fescues.
Can PLUS grasses be mixed with other forage species?
PLUS grasses mix effectively with many forage species, producing excellent synergy. They’re typically mixed with alfalfa, clover, annual ryegrass, perennial ryegrass, cocksfoot, tall fescue, timothy, brome and many others.
Can PLUS grasses be used for overseeding?
Because they establish so vigorously, PLUS grasses can strengthen thin pastures and hay fields. Ryegrass PLUS will reinvigorate winter-damaged swards, including alfalfa swards, to improve dry-matter yield and digestibility. The growth pattern of PLUS grasses complements a cutting management system that is beneficial to alfalfa.
What is the seeding rate?
In pure stands, 25-35 lbs/acre (25-40 kg/hectare), and 3-20 lbs/acre (3-25 kg/hectare) in a mixed stand.
Where do I use Festuloliums?
Ryegrass PLUS can be used in in mixtures instead of Italian ryegrass, perennial ryegrass or hybrid ryegrass. Tall fescue Plus can be used in mixtures instead of tall fescues and meadow fescues and to some extend perennial ryegrass.
How do I get the maximum yield and highest digestibility with Ryegrass PLUS?
The more you cut, the higher the quality. By cutting up to six times, with about 25 days between each cut, you get the highest and finest forage quality and yield.
What is the ideal cutting height?
To achieve the high persistency of a Ryegrass PLUS sward, you should cut to between 7cm and 8cm, as recommended for other ryegrasses. Cutting too low and you will lose on persistency and the end-yield of your sward.
How do you treat a Ryegrass PLUS sward before winter?
The last cut must allow enough time for the sward to achieve a 10cm to 15cm regrowth before winter sets in. As with other forage grasses, we recommend the last cut takes place in October.
How much higher a yield would I get by replacing perennial or hybrid ryegrass with Ryegrass PLUS?
If you mix 40-50% Ryegrass PLUS in your sward, you can harvest 10-20% more a year, and up to 60% of your total annual yield in the first and second cut.
How do you use Ryegrass PLUS in new pastures?
Ryegrass PLUS is a useful component in the mixture. It establishes quickly, provides high forage quality, and persists for many years. Ryegrass PLUS is also ideal as a monoculture. We usually recommend mixtures because it generates a synergy when you combine multiple grasses.
Is the persistency of Tall fescue PLUS as good as tall fescue?
Yes, when tested in official trials under Nordic conditions, Tall fescue PLUS exhibits high persistency with a relative yield of 216 in the third year of harvest.
Can I improve the forage quality by replacing tall fescue with Tall fescue PLUS?
Yes, the digestibility of Tall fescue PLUS is higher than that of tall fescue. The ryegrass genetic component of Tall fescue PLUS raises the digestibility of the sward.
Does Tall fescue PLUS establish faster than tall fescue?
Yes, the genes from ryegrass provide for much faster establishment. The speed with which it covers the ground leaves no space for weed.
Is Tall fescue PLUS as dense as tall fescue?
Tall fescue PLUS grows better than tall fescue and it soon gives you a dense sward with a deep rooting system and it has a very low tendency to form stems during summer.
How do you use Tall fescue PLUS in new pastures?
Tall fescue PLUS can be a long-lived component with a high forage yield similar to tall fescue – and a much higher forage quality. Tall fescue PLUS improves summer performance
